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NBC's Plan to Turn 'Late Night' Into a 'Daily Show' Clone

For years, there’s been talk of one of the broadcast networks luring Jon Stewart away from Comedy Central to take over as its late night host. But why buy the cow when you can get similar tasting milk for millions of dollars less?

That seems to be what NBC is thinking. TV Guide’s Michael Schneider reports that the ComcastComcast-owned network is considering a major overhaul of its post-primetime lineup to coincide with the handover of “The Tonight Show” from Jay Leno to Jimmy Fallon early next year.

Among the scenarios under consideration is (or at least was) an expansion of “Tonight” from 60 minutes to 90 minutes, with “Late Night,” likely hosted by “Saturday Night Live” veteran Seth Meyers, losing a half-hour of its running time to compensate. Schneider elaborates:

With both shows in New York, Late Night is expected to de-emphasize multiple celebrity guests in order to prevent booking wars with its Tonight Show sibling. Among the changes, Meyers could adapt “Weekend Update” into a nightly version for Late Night in the vein of The Daily Show, and perhaps interview more newsmakers, politicians and athletes (some of his biggest interests) and fewer stars.

In order to trim costs, Late Night might also be produced in a smaller setting, similar to Bravo’s Watch What Happens Live – perhaps with no band, a smaller audience and more reliance on conversation.

A half-hour nightly comedy show, driven by jokes about the news and interviews with politicians and other newsmakers, filmed in a small studio without a band. Sound familiar?

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None of these Lorean Michaels types ie seth meyers, jimmy fallon etal, have ever earned their ‘chops’ as did Leno, Letterman, Stuart, Colbert. SNL has become distasteful trash called funny. Michaels writers are tired and boring and reach for the low life value to appeal to what??? What???? Not I.

Jon Stewart is not only funny, but a sharp political thinker who can go toe-to-toe with a variety of luminaries from historians, economists, politicians and business leaders. His interview skills are top notch as well. And Stewart is on Comedy Central… he’s free to broach sensitive topics and language without mainstream network constraints. Can Seth Meyers do the same? On NBC? I’d be skeptical.

It’s not supposed to be, genius. It’s captioned “Jon Stewart 2.0?” – Note the question mark (not to mention the entire subject of this artice) – It’s an image of the person NBC may be planning on pushing as “poor man’s version” of Jon Stewart. Also, they at least spelled his name right. You did not.

There is a reason that The Daily Show has won so many Emmy awards … Jon Stewart and his staff are not only comedic geniuses, but they speak a version of the truth that no broadcast network would dare attempt – their editorials are dead on, insightful and even thought provoking. With the number of corporate sponsors NBC has to cow-tow to, the resulting “parody” of the news would be so watered down that the humor and irony would be lost. That’s why SNL’s Weekend Update has sucked so badly for the past 20 or so years. Only when Dennis Miller was the “anchor” did SNL even approach the level of biting commentary that Stewart and Company bring us four nights a week … and Seth Meyers? He reads the copy off the teleprompter like he’s never seen it before … Stewart is passionate, even when he’s being just plain silly. I know there are no new ideas on television anymore and the thought of ripping off the Daily Show concept is about par for the course, but no one will ever come close to what Jon Stewart and the creative crew of the Daily Show has achieved over the years.

That’s why I called it a “version” of the truth … like everything else, truth is subject to spin – propaganda as you put it. Sadly, with media bias and the rush to get the story out before sources are even checked, we can’t really believe ANYTHING we hear or see on TV news, CNN, Fox and the networks … they all seem to have an agenda. Stewart and the Daily Show are entertainment, not news – I understand that … but some of their editorial content at least spurs people to think – and that seems to be a dying art in our society. If it makes you feel any better, I am also a fan of Rush Limbaugh, so it’s not a question of left or right, liberal or conservative … but at least both of these men are lucid and articulate enough to cut through the apathy of their viewing/listening audience. To me, that is the most important part of what they do. To be honest, the only reason I posted a comment on the story was because Seth Meyers has all the talent of a wet dishrag.

Stewart (and Colbert) are both still going as strong as ever. What planet are you living on? (oh wait… I think you may be living in the same bubble as most Fox News viewers… that explains things) – Steward certainly is FAR from a “leftist Rush Limbaugh”. For starters, Stewart isn’t a bigoted, blowhard idiot – And I don’t know what a “conservation Rush Limbaugh” is – I’d assume you meant “conservative”, and are just kind of an idiot *sigh*

NBC is trying get a younger demo. Fallon has a chance to do it, unfortunately at the expense of an older audience who are currently watching Leno. Stewart is really problem for the networks because he has the coveted 18-34 locked down. Brining in Seth Meyers won’t change that one bit. This typifies network televisions main problem over the past decade. Cable can afford to be edgier, the major networks can’t. Leno and Fallon play it safe, which is where the networks prefer to be. It just doesn’t happen to be where everyone else does.